Unboxing and Testing a New Honeybee Hive Stand

Suburban Sodbuster
Suburban Sodbuster
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Published 2023-11-19
Beekeepers, do you think much about your hive stands until you're forced to find a place to set your hives? I'll confess that the stand is often an afterthought for me and I usually default to the simplest option, like cinder blocks. I recently met Kris and Kalitta Hopkins, who make and sell high quality steel raised garden beds. The Hopkins are also beekeepers and Kris has made a hive stand, for Layens hives, which is strong, easy to assemble, and more portable than cinder blocks. In this video I unbox, assemble, and give my impression of the hive stand.

The Hopkins' website: www.hopkinshomesteadstore.com/

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I grew up on a farm on the edge of the Nebraska sandhills. A cattle ranch that bears our family name, founded in the late 1800s by my ancestors, is still owned and worked by my cousin. Life events have put me in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area in middle America, where my wife and I have raised our two kids. It's in this environment that I work to make as sustainable a life as I can, converting much of our backyard to grow food, including a garden, fruit trees and bee hives.

I attempt to use natural methods, as much as is possible, in my gardening and beekeeping. I garden organically and continue to learn to work with the soil and the plants, without the use of chemical supplements, herbicides or pesticides, to improve our harvest. Our honey bees are sourced from local colonies through swarms, trap-outs and cut-outs, and are kept, using treatment-free, natural methods, in Layens horizontal hives.
All Comments (6)
  • @jefferyevans7299
    Yes, I do like to watch your videos to learn or have things explained better. A couple of ideas for the stands: First, I'd like to see some sort of foot/pad for the legs. 2nd, I'd like to see the legs adjustable. For me, I'm out in the country and have very little flat land to put them on, both suggestions would help out a lot. It would keep the legs from sinking down and making the hive unstable. Thanks for the video. 👨‍🌾
  • @lambbrookfarm4528
    Mug up from Central NH...Can you wish my sis in St. Joe happy T-day, I won't make it for Thanksgiving! I've made some different wood hive stands that look pretty cool and function well, but I must say I found a better stand. The Lyson hive stand brackets, around $130 a pair, are meant to be used with 2x lumber for rails is a very good deal for an apiary with unlevel ground. By incorporating 2x4s for rails it gives you the option of matching the length of your stand to the length of your hive of hives as the case may be. Personally I like to have room to put an empty swarm box next to my bee containing hive to isolate any frames that I may want to isolate during inspections or for honey frame removal. In looking at your new hive stand I see one area of concern; and that is if you use a strap to secure your hive to the stand by running the strap under the angle iron rail, the strap runs over the sharp edge of the rail. Probably not an issue in areas that don't have large pests that can push the hive off the stand, but here in NH we got both bears and big raccoons. Thanks for posting Monty and have a great Thanksgiving, peace to all, Brice
  • @Sister-Kate
    Saw a video recently with Dr. Leo where he had his hive stand in pots or buckets of water. He said it keeps ants and roaches away from the hive. Also, would that stand benefit from cross-bracing?